In recent years, there is a growing demand for high-definition TVs with high image quality and a big screen. A plasma display panel (PDP) not only has these advantageous features but also is thin and lightweight as well. For that reason, plasma TV sets that use a plasma display panel have attracted a lot of attention these days.
A plasma display panel conducts a display operation in full colors by adding together the so-called “three primary colors”. To get such a full-color display operation done, a fluorescence layer that emits radiations in red (R), green (G) and blue (B) is provided in the barrier rib of a PDP. The fluorescence particles that form the fluorescence layer are excited by an Xe resonance beam with a center wavelength of 147 nm, which has been produced in the electrical discharge cell of the plasma display panel, or a vacuum ultraviolet ray produced by a molecular beam with a center wavelength of 172 nm, thus producing visible radiations in red, green and blue.
A plasma display panel produces an ultraviolet ray by confining plasma in its electrical discharge cell. For that reason, the fluorescence layer is exposed to the plasma and cations in the plasma will collide against the fluorescence particles, thus deteriorating the fluorescence particles. Non-Patent Document No. 1 and Patent Documents Nos. 1 to 4 teach a technique for reducing such deterioration of a fluorescence particle by protecting the surface of the fluorescence particle with a coating of a metal oxide such as aluminum oxide or magnesium oxide.    Patent Document No. 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 10-125240    Patent Document No. 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 11-172244    Patent Document No. 3: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-55567    Patent Document No. 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 10-195428    Non-Patent Document No. 1: Technical Report No. 830 of the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan, May 2001, pp. 30-39    Non-Patent Document No. 2: NHK R & D, No. 93, September 2005